Rejection of ‘poisoned chalice’ cash defended

GOVERNMENT offers of cash to keep council tax at existing levels and to reintroduce weekly bin collections have been labelled as poisoned chalices by Redcar and Cleveland Council leader George Dunning.

GOVERNMENT offers of cash to keep council tax at existing levels and to reintroduce weekly bin collections have been labelled as poisoned chalices by Redcar and Cleveland Council leader George Dunning.

East Cleveland Independent councillor Steve Kay posed questions at a meeting of the council about why the authority was rejecting the offer of a £1.45m grant to keep council tax levels the same.

Instead, the authority was proposing to increase council tax charges by 3.5%.

Cllr Kay said the Government was also offering cash to authorities which wanted to move back to weekly bin collections.

“Why does Labour repeatedly turn down good money which could improve services and reduce the burden on the council tax payer?” asked Cllr Kay.

Cllr Dunning said the cost of reintroducing weekly bin collections would be about £1m a year.

The Government was offering just a one-off grant.

“We would face increased costs of around £1m each year and it is at a time when we are trying to find significant savings.

“Eric Pickles (the Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities) did make the point that if existing arrangements for bin collections were working well there was no need to make the change. We have made the right decision in the light of our local circumstances,” said Cllr Dunning.

He said the council had accepted the Government’s previous grant to maintain this year’s council tax levels because it was for the lifetime of the Parliament.

“This latest offer of a grant for the coming year is a one-off grant.

“In the longer term it would cost this council £7m to accept the grant.

“The grant offers on the bin collections and the council tax are two poisoned chalices,” said Cllr Dunning.